Tag: Disney

OM in the News: The $1,000,000,000 Queue

The newspaper in your town probably doesn’t run its lead story about queues and wait times. But this is Orlando, and when Disney World (with its 62,000 local employees) announces a $1 billion program to improve wait times with “interactive queues”, it is the headline (Orlando Sentinel, March 26,2011)!  Queues alone consume 10-20% of Disney’s capital budget.

Queues are a delicate balance at all of Disney’s theme parks, especially at Magic Kingdom, which hosts more than 45,000 visitors daily. Guests paying $85 to get in have long complained about the lines as their #1 beef. “Where are you going to put all those bodies? Well, some of them have to be in a queue”, says a UCF prof.

Here are some of the ways Disney’s “Next Generation Experience” project is spending its massive budget: interactive queues at Space Mountain, Winnie the Pooh, Haunted Mansion, and Epcot’s Soarin’. After 40 years of slowly shuffling towards the Haunted Mansion, for example, waiting riders now move through a graveyard filled with elaborate crypts. When you touch the tomb of a composer, instruments carved in the stone play music.

Disney has always paid attention to ride queues, with lavishly themed “pre-shows” that help establish the attraction’s story line.  Disney added giant video screens in the Soarin’ queue, equipped with sensors that allows big groups of guests to play collaborative games while waiting. Now it has placed 87 video-game stations in the Space Mountain queue and play areas for kids in the Winnie the Pooh line.

“Guests were willing to wait 12% longer because of the interactive experience”, says a Disney exec. That’s about 7 min. in an hour-long line. (To read our 2 earlier blogs about Disney and queues, click here).

Discussion questions:

1. Disney’s “NextGen” will also let guests book ride times from home and by-pass lines entirely. Is this a good OM idea?

2. Why is Disney willing to spend $1 billion to make its lines more fun?

OM in the News: Disney and the Art of Queuing

On Thanksgiving, I  blogged  that our family spent a day (mostly in queues) at Disney World, here in Orlando. My report was from the perspective of a customer being entertained while in lines and touring the park.

Now the New York Times (Dec.28, 2010) presents the inside view of the same theme park, but from the underground control room. This nerve center sits below the Cinderella Castle and has made the art of queuing into a science.

“There has been a cultural shift towards impatience–fed by video games and smart phones”, says a park manager. Customers are simply demanding more action. One response:  at Space Mountain, 87 game stations now line the queue to keep visitors entertained. Each provides 90 seconds of  game challenges.

The operations center monitors all 40 rides at Magic Kingdom, and because of its efforts, the average park visitor can now ride 10 of them (up from 9) in a typical day. For example, if a control center light monitoring the Pirates of the Caribbean ride changes from green to yellow, the operations manager can launch more boats…. or may dispatch Capt. John Sparrow or Goofy to entertain people in line. If Fantasyland  is swamped, but Tomorrowland less crowded, the ops center can relocate a miniparade to siphon guests in that direction.

Discussion questions:

1. Why does Disney expend such effort on queue management?

2. What other approaches could be attempted to shorten waits?

Teaching Tip: Queuing Up at Disney on Thanksgiving

Having lived in the Orlando area for over 2 decades, everyone assumes my family and I are regular visitors to the Magic Kingdom and the 5 other  Disney World properties here. After all, Disney World is a powerhouse,with over 62,000 local employees (called “cast members”)  and 48 million visitors last year. So when they find I have yet to take my 13 year old son to the Magic Kingdom, I appear to be some sort of ogre. (To my defense, my kids have been to Universal, Sea World, Wet n’ Wild, Blizzard Beach, Animal Kingdom, and on and on). To overcome this pressure, we all went to Disney today, Thanksgiving, 2010.

Here is what we learned. Thanksgiving is one of the  busiest days of the year. And Disney has a clear plan for dealing with this capacity situation (Supp.7): All free passes are cancelled, all cast members are called in, extra parades are scheduled, more refreshment booths are opened, and hours are extended…the Park didn’t close till 1am!

But the queues–oh the queues! Where else would a rational family of 4 pay $340 in entrance fees, $12 to park, and $50 for water and ice cream, only to wait in a series of 45 minute lines for 5 or 6 rides and shows…and then walk away happy as can be?

Here is the secret to the psychology of queuing theory…something Disney’s flock of Ph.D.s in OR and IE have mastered: (1) Keep your customers informed of how long each queue will take,with signs posted frequently…and overestimate, don’t underestimate. (2) Entertain them while they wait, with videos, music, and cartoon characters. (3) Keep the lines moving so progress seems to be taking place. And (4), make people walk long distances between the most popular features, with plenty of interesting activities en route.

I hope this leads to some useful class discussions about how how queues can be managed. Happy Thanksgiving to all!